System and Method for Enabling an Advertisement to Follow the User to Additional Web Pages

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method and system for advertising that performs the steps of delivering an electronic advertisement comprising one or more menu options and a reference to a network location for retrieving specified content associated with each menu option for inclusion in a first electronic document, receiving a selection of one or more menu options from the electronic advertisement and delivering a subsequent accessible document including content from the referenced network location associated with the menu option selected, the subsequent accessible document including the electronic advertisement.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of, and claims priority to,pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/073,945, filed on Mar. 28,2011, which is a continuation application of, and claims priority to,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/748,681, filed on Dec. 31, 2003,which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.60/516,281, filed on Nov. 3, 2003, the entirety of which is hereinincorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to systems for and methods of providing anadvertisement that enables a user to obtain additional Internet-basedcontent while still viewing the advertisement.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Internet users are often subjected to large quantities of ads. Many ofthese ads are graphical in nature, as graphics provide much information.However, graphical advertisements require more storage and take longerto transmit than small text advertisements. In addition, graphicaladvertisements can be distracting and intrusive.

Advertisers are motivated to make their advertisements catch people'sattention. Accordingly, advertisements can be quite garish andobtrusive, forcing the user to wait or somehow take action. Usersgenerally have little control over the display of these ads (other thanto not visit certain web pages).

Such tactics frequently serve to annoy the user. As a result, onlinead-blocking software has been developed. This software can prevent manytypes of ads from displaying on people's computers. The annoyance factorof ads today causes many people to not want to investigate what the adsare offering, even if they really offer something useful. Clearly,people are not happy with existing advertisements, such as graphicalbanners.

While existing systems allow advertisers to present graphics, they failto provide effective and desirable advertisements that have a lowannoyance factor for users. These and other drawbacks exist with currentsystems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The various embodiments of the systems and methods described herein maycomprise a computer-implemented method for advertising comprising thesteps of delivering an electronic advertisement comprising one or moremenu options and a reference to a network location for retrievingspecified content associated with each menu option for inclusion in afirst electronic document, receiving a selection of one or more menuoptions from the electronic advertisement and delivering a secondelectronic document including content from the referenced networklocation associated with the menu option selected, the second electronicdocument including the electronic advertisement.

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate various embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples and advantages of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary electronic document including a morphingadvertisement in a first display format according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 depicts an electronic document including a morphing exemplaryadvertisement in a second display format according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 3 depicts a system for delivering one or more morphingadvertisements according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary system for receiving and delivering morphingadvertisements according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary electronic document including one or moremorphing advertisements in a first display format according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 depicts an electronic document comprising a morphingadvertisement in a second display format according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 7 depicts an exemplary electronic document generated upon selectionof a menu option in a menu-driven advertisement according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 depicts another exemplary electronic document generated uponselection of a menu option in a menu-driven advertisement according toan embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 depicts a schematic diagram illustrating the exchange ofinformation and requests between an end user system and a content/searchand advertisement system according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 10 depicts a method of using one or more morphing advertisementsthat enable a recipient system to modify the appearance of anadvertisement based on a user request according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 11 depicts an exemplary interface through which an advertiser mayprovide information to be included in a first and second display formats(e.g., unexpanded and expanded formats) of a morphing advertisementaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following embodiments are illustrative of various aspects of theinvention morphing advertisement in an electronic document. In addition,various sub-headings are provided for guidance, but are in no wayintended to be limiting as to where descriptions of various featuresmight be addressed in this disclosure or the associated figures.

Advertisements may be presented in electronic documents, such as webcontent (e.g., web pages, email, HTML pages, XML pages, etc.), in amanner that enables transition from a first display format (e.g., atextual format) into a second display format (e.g., an interactivegraphical menu-driven format, a larger textual format, a movie format,an audio format, etc.) on demand in a rapid fashion. In one example, theadvertisement or a grouping of advertisements is/are presented first intextual format while enabling the user to expand the advertisement intoa menu-driven, graphical advertisement. The menu-driven, graphicaladvertisement may enable the user to view the content of theadvertisement and then return to the textual format if desired. Theaction taken by the user to initiate the second display format maycomprise selection of an expansion icon, selection in a frame box, amarket on the side, below or above the advertisement, selecting or rollover selected portions or highlights of the advertisement, simple “passover” of the text related to the ad, other forms of user-initiated andcontrolled actions or other conditions, as discussed below. In addition,the size of the display of an advertisement, the size of expansion,where the advertisement is placed and/or what other advertisements itmay cover may be based on a price parameter or other ranking formula(e.g., an amount an advertiser is willing to pay for each click, bidamount, price information, other measure of price, etc.) associated withthe advertisement and others considered for placement.

Further, in one illustrative embodiment, the second display format maycomprise a menu-driven, graphical advertisement that includes one ormore menu-selections and further graphics or text to enable the user tofind out more about the advertiser and/or its products before decidingwhether to visit the pages of content to which the user will betransferred upon selection of the advertisement (e.g., in apay-for-performance based advertising system). The menus may provide oneor more selections that enable the user to view even moreinformation/content related to advertiser and/or its products. When theuser selects one of the menu selections, the contents page returned mayinclude the same menu-driven graphics-based advertisement so that theadvertisement “follows the user.” A “home” link may be provided totransfer the user back to the contents/search page and menu-basedgraphical advertisement viewed before the user selected the menuselection in the advertisement. In one exemplary embodiment, theadvertiser is not determined to have met a performance parameter (e.g.,a “click-through”) for a menu-selection within the advertisement, so theuser is able to learn more about the advertiser and/or its productsbefore it “clicks through.” Enabling the user to view more informationbefore an advertiser is deemed to have met a performance parameter thatresults in charging of a price parameter associated with the performanceparameter makes the eventual referral more valuable to the advertisers.

Morphing Advertisements in Electronic Documents

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary electronic document (e.g., web page, email,electronic newsletter, etc.) 100 that includes a plurality ofadvertisements (here two advertisements although fewer or more may beprovided between the scope of the invention). Such advertisement(s) mayappear on the electronic document (e.g., web page) to alert a user thatcertain goods or services are available. Specifically, the companyand/or products in the advertisement(s) may relate to the contents ofthe electronic documents.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, one or more of theadvertisements displayed in the electronic document may comprise amorphing advertisement. Specifically, a morphing advertisement maycomprise an advertisement that changes from a first display format to atleast one other display format (e.g., based upon a user request such asa user initiated activity, preference, or movement). The exampleprovided in FIG. 1 illustrates a first display format for the secondadvertisement shown at reference number 105. As depicted in referencenumber 105, the first display format for the morphing advertisement maycomprise textual information about the advertiser and/or its products.In addition, an expansion icon or other control element 110 may beprovided to enable a user to request the transition of advertisement 105into a second display format (e.g., a more detailed textual format, agraphical format, or a menu-driven interface format, just to name afew).

Although an icon has been shown for use in enabling a user to select tohave the advertisement “morph” from the first display format to a seconddisplay format, it should be appreciated that other operations and/ormodules may be provided to enable the user to indicate a desire to movefrom one format to another. In the example in which more than twodisplay formats are provided for a morphing advertisement (e.g., three,four, etc.), various methodologies may be provided to enable theexpansion or movement between the various formats as well. For example,there may be three display formats in which the image goes from a smallsize to a medium size to a large size, each time expanding into coveringgreater surface area in the electronic document. In doing so, a scrollbar or other escalating icon may be provided to enable the user toinitiate movement between the various sized display formats.

Additionally, the morphing from the first display format to the seconddisplay format may be based on other factors, including the media mix ofthe page in which the advertisement is being included, the user'sexperience with the site and/or pages in which the advertisement isbeing included, the user's detected or specified connection speed, thenumber of advertisements included on a page, the available real estatein the page and many other factors.

Further, the original “advertisement” may comprise free informationprovided via the Internet and/or World Wide Web that expands to providemore information about an advertising entity and/or is products and/orservices. In addition, the first display format may be an advertisementand the second display format may comprise free web-based information.For example, a search result entry in a search engine may be expandableinto a local business listing that includes a picture, etc.

According to one illustrative embodiment, a first display format may bea compact format that is generally unobtrusive to the user and has a lowannoyance factor as illustrated in the example provided in FIG. 1 atreference number 105. The compact format may comprise primarily text,with little or no graphics or icon content, although other compactformats may also be used. In this example, a user may request transitionof exemplary advertisement 100 to a second display format by clicking onexpansion icon 110 or through some other user-initiated action. Suchaction(s) may cause an advertisement in expanded format to be presentedto the user as shown and described below in the example of FIG. 2.Expansion icon 110 is depicted here as a magnifying glass, however,other icons or mechanisms for expansion are contemplated.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary electronic document including theadvertisement 105 of FIG. 1 in a second display format (e.g., inexpanded format 200). Such an expanded format advertisement 200 mayappear when a user clicks on expansion icon 110 of advertisement 100. Bymaking the expanded format advertisement appear at the request of theviewer, either by explicit request (such as activating expansion icon110), by a predetermined preference (as a user's preference setting) orthrough some other activation protocol based on user activity, theadvertisement's format (e.g., prominence, appearance, size) iscontrolled by the user, The user has thus given consent and feelsempowered. The user is further empowered to dismiss an annoying orinappropriate advertisement. This may be accomplished by including anicon for outright dismissal, an icon for shrinking back to compactformat, or combinations thereof.

According to one illustrative iteration, the second display format maycomprise a menu-based graphical advertisement 200. Advertisement 200 mayinclude one or more menu options 210. Menu options 210 may be selectedby a user to request additional information specified by the advertiserand shown in the expanded format. Alternately, or in addition, menuoptions 210 may be selected to enable the user to navigate to additionalcontent (e.g., other electronic documents such as web pages) with suchinformation as will be described below with reference to FIGS. 7, 8 and11, for example. Menu options 210 may direct a current browser window inwhich the electronic document is being viewed, call up an entirely newweb browser window, or activate pop-up windows with additionalinformation.

In one illustrative embodiment, advertisement 200 may comprise menuoptions 210 that comprise a home option 220, pictures option 230, and agear option 240. These options may be specified by the advertiser whencreating the creative as depicted in further detail with respect to FIG.11 below. Other options an advertiser may choose include a map optionthat displays map information for an advertiser or its products andservices, a weather option that displays weather information related toan advertiser's location and many others that any advertiser may finduseful for providing the user more information.

In addition, the advertiser may be able to select an image 270, expandedtext 280 and contact information 290. The advertiser may also bepermitted to specify an address that can turn into an automaticallygenerated link to a map or picture of a map in the advertisement, forexample. The main display 260 may be that utilized in the first displayformat of the advertisement, such as that as shown in FIG. 1, forexample. Specifically, the home menu option 220 may be a default that isincluded in all expanded advertisements utilized in the system. The homeicon may, upon selection, return the user to the original content/searchpage that included the expandable advertisement in the event that theuser selects one or more of the other menu options and views otherpages. Upon selection of picture icon 230 and/or gear icon 240,additional content may be displayed to the user in the content portion201 of the electronic document (e.g., web page) while advertisement 200continues to be displayed to the user.

In one example, advertisement 200 may persist on the user's screenduring such navigation as described below (or at least appear that wayby being refreshed as a part of each electronic document presentedduring the user's use of the advertisement and its menu options). Theadvertisement as shown in the second display format 200 of FIG. 2 isdepicted as including a tabbed set of menu options 210. Pull down,icons, or other forms of menu options may also be used.

The menu-based graphical advertisement 200 example depicted thuspresents an opportunity for the advertiser to tell the interestedpotential customer about its company, products and/or offerings throughimages, other graphics, or additional text. It may act as a synopsis ofthe advertiser's offering, with guides. It may lead and follow the useras he or she investigates, like a special navigation toolbar. It mayeven follow through to the destination site/page.

In one illustrative example, advertisement 200 may be offered in acontrolled environment. For example, it may be operated in such a way topreclude pop-ups (unless specifically directed to by the user), orretrieving additional web pages/sites without a user's request. Suchadvertisements may follow a user around on his or her journey, providinga handy way back to the start of the journey, as well as a moreconsistent user experience.

Offering users expandable advertisements gives them the ability tosafely investigate information about the advertiser and/or its productsbefore going to the advertiser's designated target location (e.g., itstarget web page). As people get used to such advertisements, itdecreases their inhibitions to investigating advertising content, andincreases the exposure of advertisement host's information (if not theirweb sites). Charge-incurring performance parameters to the advertisermay be met less frequently because some “no” decisions will get madewhen a user has seen the second display format advertisement, but thequality of the charged performance (e.g., a click through and/orconversion to customer relationship) will be much higher. Thisembodiment also enables the user to quickly go through informationavailable in the advertisement.

By measuring user response to advertisements, advertisement hosts candetermine advertisement quality, and can use this as a criterion fordetermining whether or not to show a particular advertiser'sadvertisement. These conditions create an incentive for an advertiser tocreate accurate and pleasing and useful full-size advertisements.

By monitoring user manipulations (and timing thereof) of advertisements,advertisement hosts can determine advertisement creative quality, and incombination with site (or equivalent) performance, such as throughclick-through rate, improve advertisement targeting quality. To do so,various mechanisms may be employed, including, but not limited to,monitoring whether an image is downloaded (e.g., when the user expandsthe advertisement to a format including an image and the image was notpre-cached at the user's system). If an image is deliberately cached atthe user's system, a 1×1 pixel may be retrieved from the server when theimage is opened to determine that the image was opened and when thatoccurred (the retrieval of a 1×1 pixel is typically so unnoticeable thateven if a delay in retrieval occurs, the user does not experience anydegradation in performance). Likewise, on close of the image, adifferent 1×1 pixel may be retrieved to track that event and when itoccurred. Other mechanisms may be used as well.

The events tracked may vary as well. For example, a statisticallysignificant sample indicating long dwell time on an advertisement showshigh creative quality. A statistically significant sample showing quickdismissals of the full size advertisement show poor creative quality,creative irrelevance or targeting imprecision. A statisticallysignificant sample showing click-through to advertiser indicates goodconversion potential, although a statistically relevant sample showingquick return to the page that hosts the advertisement from the clickshows a poor customer experience and unlikely conversion. Thesemonitored events may then be used by the system to determine whether anadvertisement is effective and may use the effectiveness to determinewhether the advertisement should be displayed as part of or regardlessof a ranking scheme used to rank advertisements.

Accordingly, one illustrative method of the present invention isdepicted in FIG. 10. In this method 1000, a step 1002 is performed inwhich advertisements are stored, the advertisements including one ormore morphing advertisements such as in our database system as is wellknown in the art. In step 1004, a request may be received at theadvertisement/content system for an advertisement to be provided. Instep 1006, ranking of advertisements may be determined as an optionalfeature as discussed above. In another embodiment, advertisements may beprovided in some other format based on other predetermined criteria(e.g., match advertisement format to page media and layout). In step1008, one or more morphing ads may be delivered to the end user systemthat include the code that enables the end user system to effectuatetransitioning the ad from a first display format to a second displayformat as described in greater detail below.

System for Receiving and Delivering Morphing and Menu-DrivenAdvertisements

An embodiment of a networked environment in which such a system mayoperate is depicted in FIG. 3. In such a system, advertisement providers12 connect over a network 14 to an advertisement listings provider 16(e.g., using a secure https connection) to register, provide paymentinformation, one or more price parameters (e.g., an amount an advertiseris willing to pay for each click, bid amount, price information, othermeasure of price, etc.) and associated advertisements (also calledcreatives) associated with the price parameter. For example, theadvertisers may provide their price parameter(s) in association with akeyword for use in a search engine system and may also provide a priceparameter in association with content on a content portal or contentdistribution system. The advertisement listings provider 16 then storesthe information on a database server 18 for later transmittal. Theadvertisement listings provider 16 may then distribute the listingsthrough various forums or feeds, including direct distribution in printmedia, providing the listings on one or more web sites affiliated withthe advertisement listings provider, through internet advertisingdistribution partners 20 (also called syndication partners) (connectedover network 14 or 22 depending on security desired), through contentsystems 24 (with associated content databases 26) and through searchengine systems operated by the advertisement listing provider orinternet advertising distribution partner(s).

Through these various forums, the advertisements provided by theadvertisement provider may be included in pages displayed to end users28 (often called an impression). In one embodiment, the advertisementprovider 12 is only obligated to pay if the end user meets someperformance parameter (e.g., clicks-through the advertisement to the webpage target provided by the advertisement provider in affiliation withthe particular ad, activates a coupon, becomes a registered user,purchases an item, completes a phone link (in the event of awireless/phone hookup), for example). In addition, the advertisementlistings provider 16 may only be paid when a certain performanceparameter is achieved (e.g., a click-through occurs or a conversionoccurs, etc.) or some other monetization event occurs. Also,traditionally, the advertisement listing provider 16 and Internetdistribution partner(s) 20 may agree to share the revenue for thecharge-incurring performance (e.g., click-throughs generated) throughdistribution via the internet distribution partner 20.

Each of advertising listings provider 16 and advertisement provider 12may comprise computerized systems that include one or more of thefollowing systems: a web server, a database server•, proxy server,network balancing mechanisms and systems, and various softwarecomponents that enable the system to operate on the Internet or othernetwork type system. Additionally, networks 14 and 22, although depictedas http networks, may comprise other networks such as private lines,intranets, or any other network. Preferably, the connection betweenadvertising provider 12 and advertisement listing provider 16 maycomprise secure network connections to insure that data is not subjectto attack or corruption by any hacker or other third party. In addition,whereas two advertisement providers are depicted, it should beappreciated that one or more advertisement providers 12 may be providedin the network. Similarly, although one database server 18 is depicted,it should be appreciated that multiple database servers may be providedand that such database servers may be connected to the advertisementlisting provider via any type of network connection, including adistributed database server architecture.

Similarly, content system 24 and content database 26 may comprise anynumber of such systems connected to the advertisement provider oradvertisement listing provider 16 via any type of network, including anhttp or https network. Content provider 24 may comprise a system such asadvertisement listing provider 16 that provides functionality forenabling connection over the Internet or other network protocols. Endusers 28 may comprise any user connected to the Internet and maycomprise computerized systems that enable that connection through any ofvarious types of networks, including through internet service providers,cable companies, and any other method of accessing data on the Internet.Internet advertising distribution partners 20 may comprise any systemthat distributes internet-based advertising to end users. Whereas twoInternet advertising distribution partners 20 are depicted, any numbermay actually be provided.

In general, in these embodiments, the advertisement listing provider 16generates revenue when end users achieve performance parameters or someother monetization event (as discussed above) occurs relevant to anadvertisement such that the advertising system can charge a priceparameter participating advertisement providers select. Theadvertisement listing provider 16 may also incur costs for everyimpression that it reaches in the form of overhead in running a web siteor distribution agreements for distribution. Accordingly, the variousembodiments of the present invention recognize that in such systems, itis the revenue per specific page served (effective revenue perimpression) that generally produces the advertisement listing provider'sprofits (also called page real estate revenue efficiency). By using pagereal estate revenue efficiency to rank advertisements then, theadvertisement listing provider's rankings track its own profitability.This is particularly true for distribution channels with limited numbersof slots for advertisements.

As shown in FIG. 4, the advertising listing provider 16 may comprise asystem that provides an advertisement receiving module 30 forinteracting with advertising providers to receive advertisementinformation. It may also comprise an advertising listing generationmodule 32 that generates a listing of advertisements from the databasebased on criteria provided and depending on the forum for theadvertisements (e.g., search engine, content portal, distributionpartner, etc.). A ranking module 34 may generate an order to the listingbased on rankings based on a model. In one embodiment, the rankingmodule 34 may determine rankings based on price parameter values,revenue efficiency and performance, in conjunction with a performancerate determination module 36 (e.g., a click-through-rate calculator,conversion calculator, coupon selection calculator, phone through ratecalculator, etc.). The resulting advertisements generated and ranked maythen be communicated through various channels. An advertisercommunication module 38 may also be provided for communicating with theadvertisers. For example, it may be desired for the system to alert anadvertiser prior to changing the advertisement used for a given priceparameter or before moving the advertisement down or up in the rankingsA database 18 may be provided in affiliation with the advertiser listingprovider to store advertisements, price parameters, advertisinginformation and a cache of clicks to be used to determine theperformance-rate.

Additionally, because advertising listings provider 16 may provide thefunctionality of distributing advertising itself and providing searchengine results, web server system 40 may be provided as well as a searchengine system 41. It should be appreciated that multiple such systemsmay be encompassed within the advertising listing provider system 16.

Additionally, a morphing enablement module 42 may be provided that takesdata stored for a morphing advertisement in the database system 18 andgenerates a morphing advertisement for inclusion in an electronicdocument as described below, for example, an image server 44 may beprovided to serve images associated with advertisements, if desired.Also, a target redirection server may receive a target selection fromthe user system, log the event for billing purposes and redirect theuser to advertiser specified content.

Additionally, database server system 18 may comprise one or moredatabase systems that store various types of data including one or moreof the following: advertisements, the click cache, price parameterinformation, and advertiser information including registrationinformation about the advertisers, accounts for the advertisers, paymentinformation and other information as described herein. Numerous modulesmay not be provided in various embodiments and/or the modules may becombined together to provide the functionality described. Further, themodules may be dispersed across multiple physical systems or may beduplicated across multiple systems.

Generating a Morphing and Menu-Driven Advertisement for Inclusion in anElectronic Document

Enabling an advertisement to be changed from a first display format to asecond display format may be accomplished in a wide variety and mannerof ways. Web pages that host such advertisements may be, but are notlimited to, HTML. Technologies for achieving such changeableadvertisements include, but are not limited to:

-   -   A) Using dynamic user interface logic, such as dynamic web page        with JavaScript, vbscript, or dynamic content such as        macromedia, or signals to and from an embedded control such as a        toolbar to modify the visible page; or    -   B) As above, by creating a pop-up; or    -   C) Bringing in another page with the advertisement expanded.        This option may be employed to limit or avoid dependency on        browser type or settings.

According to one illustrative embodiment, the electronic document mayinclude Java Script code that enables a user to select to have theadvertisement morph from the first display format to a second displayformat. An example of the HTML-based Java Script code to perform hisfunction is as follows:

An example of the JavaScript code, embedded in or referenced by an HTMLpage, to perform this function is as follows:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=“JavaScript”> <!-- // // This JavaScript function takesan object identified by currentElement // and toggles its visibility. Itis called by the Morphing function below // function toggleVisibility(currentElement ){ dom = document.getElementById( currElem ).style;stater dom.display, dom.display = (state = ‘none’)? “”: “none”; } //This JavaScript function takes an advertisement identified bycurrentElement // and modifies display parameters on HTML page contentso that the user perceives // that the ad morphs. In this example, allads of one form -- the ‘plainAds’ -- are hidden, // and the selected adis morphed by making its alternate form visible. // This function isinvoked by the morphing selection mechanism. // function morph(advertisement ){ toggleVisibility( ‘plainAds’ ); toggleVisibility(advertisement ); } --> </SCRIPT> <!-- Suitably tag HTML code withidentifiers -->Also, to speed the delivery of images, graphics, or other large files tobe included in a display format, the code included in the electronicdocument may preload such images, graphics, or other files (e.g., intothe cache of the browser) so they can be more quickly displayed uponselection by the user to display the second display format. n example ofthe JavaScript code to pre-fetch an image is as follows. The code can beembedded in or referenced by an HTML page, it is shown here as codeembedded in an HTML page:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=“JavaScript”> <!-- // declare an array to hold all thecached image references, in this case one var images = new Array(1); //instantiate an image object for each cached image images[0] = newImaged( ); // associate the image object with the URL of an image, whichit will automatically fetch Images[0].src =“imageadsgoogle.com/HZT5311590625_1.jpg”; //put any other warm-up codeor JavaScript funcations here.... ... --> </SCRIPT>

Morphing and Menu-Driven Advertisements in Syndication/Distribution

According to another illustrative example of the present invention, themorphing advertisements may be incorporated into content based systemsthrough a syndication system (e.g., distribution partner) as describedabove with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4. Specifically, various web sites maydesire to include advertisements related to the content of their variousweb pages on the web site. As a result, such advertisers may enter intoagreements with the advertising listing provider to provideadvertisements that relate to the content of their site. An example of aweb page resulting from an advertisement provided by the advertisinglisting provider to the content system is illustrated in FIG. 5. In thisexample, a news site is displaying news related to various topics ofinterest. In this example, the advertisements content 500 includes areport relating to the financial success of a company XYZ which is inthe business of providing equipment for wildlife tours. Accordingly,such news story may be determined by the advertising listing provider tobe related to wildlife tours and thus the advertisements depicted inFIG. 1 may be syndicated to the content provider system for display inthe web page as shown in FIG. 5. In similar fashion as described abovewith reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, this may be a morphing advertisementwhich may morph into the format as shown in FIG. 6 whereby the morphingadvertisement covers the entire area allocated by the content system foradvertisements based upon the user's selection of the morphing icon orother mechanism for requesting transition from a first display format toa second display format.

Further Details on Menu-Driven Advertisements

According to another illustrative embodiment of the present invention,the morphing advertisement may comprise a format that includes amenu-based graphical format as shown for example in the illustrativeexample of FIG. 2. Such a display format may enable the user to navigateto various other pages of content provided by the content/advertisementsystem without necessarily transitioning to a web page sponsored by theadvertiser. This provides the ability of the user to maintain controlover whether they visit the advertiser's web site but also allows theuser to find out more information relevant to the advertiser and/or itsproducts. In this example, the advertisement may be thought of asfollowing the user around as they visit the various pages of contentselected by the advertiser in association with the menu optionspresented in the advertisement. Content may be restricted to a specificsite, such as Google, or content cached by the site (e.g., Google) toallow quick, anonymous browsing as explained below.

As shown in FIG. 7, one of the menu options may comprise a menu optionto view pictures relevant to the advertised wild life tour. Uponselecting that menu option, a request may be transmitted based upon thecontent supplied in the advertisement back to the advertisement Listingserver which may then return a web page that includes content specifiedin the URL associated with the menu option and including the menu-drivengraphical advertisement as well. In this way, the user continues to havethe advertisement as a point of reference for navigating to variousother pieces of information or back by selection of the home icon. Inthis example of FIG. 7, various pages of images may be displayed andsuch images may be those hosted by the advertising listingprovider/content provider that the user is visiting. Of course it iswithin the scope of the present invention that the referenced page thatis displayed by the advertisement may comprise pages of content on othersites as well. One of the advantages of containing the pages to whichthe user is taken is to create a safe experience for the user so thatthey feel comfortable selecting these links and not necessarily visitingother web pages. Specifically, if the content/advertisement provider hasestablished a reputation as being a “safe place” on the Internet for theuser to visit and experience, that system would want to continue thatreputation by ensuring that the pages visited through the menu-drivengraphical advertisement are also safe. For example, the pages referencedmay be limited to those pages approved or associated with thecontent/advertising system that is the host of the original page wherethe user received the content and the menu-driven advertisement.

As shown in FIG. 8, another selection on the menu-driven advertisementmay comprise a request to view items for sale (gear) related to thewildlife tour companies suggested items for taking such a tour. In thisembodiment, the user may be taken to view various items for sale throughpages hosted or affiliated with the content/advertisement system toagain provide the feel of a safe confined experience for the user. Onceagain, upon selection of the menu option, the advertisement may transmitto the content/advertisement system a request for a page as specified inassociation with that menu option within the advertisement of the HTMLpage already on the user system. The advertisement/content providersystem may then return the requested content along with the menu-drivenadvertisement as well to again allow the advertisement to “follow theuser around.” Given the fact that the advertisement is not changing, itwill appear to the user in a preferred embodiment that the advertisementdoes not “change” because the browser is not required to change any ofthe pixels depicted for that portion of the electronic page.

Another advantage of the advertisement following the user is that theadvertisement may be present during the purchase of items, such asthrough an interface depicted in FIG. 8. Thus, the advertisement mayrecord feedback from the user at the point of purchase to determine theeffectiveness of the advertisement, etc.

In other embodiments, the system may utilize frames such that theadvertisement is treated as one frame that does not need to be refreshedwhereas the other content portions of the page are refreshed. Variousiterations of this may be employed by one of ordinary skill in the artsuch that the advertisement may “follow the user” to various pages ofcontent as specified in the menu options of the advertisement.

Of course, the advertisement that “follows the user” may not be amorphing advertisement, but may be static or some other format as well.Also, as should be appreciated, the system for providing thisfunctionality may include an electronic advertisement output system thatdelivers the electronic advertisement comprising one or more menuoptions and a reference to a network location for retrieving specifiedcontent associated with each menu option. The system may also receive aselection of the menu option from the electronic advertisement anddeliver a second electronic document (e.g., web page) including contentfrom the referenced network location associated with the menu optionselected, the second electronic document including the electronicadvertisement. In various embodiments, one of the menu options may be ahome option such that the page delivered upon selection is theelectronic document (e.g., web page) originally presented to the userwith the advertisement or some other electronic document designated asthe home document (e.g., home web page) by the referenced link. Theadvertisement may be a morphing advertisement as described above or someother form of advertisement that is either displayed independently or inconnection with one or more electronic documents (e.g., web pages).

The network locations (e.g., URLs) specified in reference to the menuoptions may comprise network locations provided by or affiliated with ahost entity that delivered the first electronic document and electronicadvertisement to provide the “safe” experience described. This type ofadvertisement may be used in a price-based display system described ingreater detail below or in any other system as well. The system maystore the reference to the advertisement for use by the user inretrieving the advertisement and may also store the referencedelectronic documents (e.g., pages) or content thereof as well, ifdesired. If the reference is stored, then the advertisement may bebookmarked by the user using that reference. The referenced electronicdocument may comprise web pages provided by or affiliated with the hostentity or the advertiser, including pages where the user may purchaseitems for sale related to the advertisement either hosted by theoperator of the system or the advertiser. The system may receivefeedback information relating to the purchases on referenced electronicdocuments (e.g., pages) for tracking the effectiveness of anadvertisement as it follows the user to various referenced electronicdocuments (e.g., pages).

One example of a menu-driven advertisement experience is depicted inFIG. 9 wherein an end user system 28 and content/search andadvertisement system 12/24 are depicted. An end user system 28 maytransmit a search/content request to the content/search andadvertisement system 12/24. That system may then return an electronicpage with content/search results and one or more morphingadvertisements. Upon selection or other indication by the user totransition the ad or morph the ad from a first display format to asecond display format, a request may be processed solely at the end usersystem based upon the Java script described above.

Accordingly, no further instruction to content/search and advertisementsystem may be required to transition the ad from a first display formatto a second display format. If, however, a user selects one of the menuoptions on a menu-driven graphical advertisement, then a request may betransmitted to content/search and advertisement systems 12/24 and inreturn, the referenced menu link contents plus the same morphingadvertisement may be presented and transmitted back to the end usersystem. If at any time the user selects the home option 220 in themenu-driven graphical advertisement 200, the original content/searchresults and advertisements in the expanded second display format thatincludes the menu-driven advertisement may be transmitted to the enduser system. In another example, an advertisement may be targeted tolocal users and so a map link may be provided as an option that displayselectronic mapping data and information.

In other embodiment, the morphing advertisement, such as a menu-drivenadvertisement (used as a business listing or when an advertiser does nothave a web site, for example), may be separately bookmarkable by havinga separate URL associated therewith. Accordingly, a user could choose toview the advertisement whenever they desire by referencing the bookmark.

Interface For Inputting Components and Contents of Morphing andMenu-Driven Advertisements

Various interfaces are well known in the art for enabling advertisers toprovide the contents for an advertisement to be included in suchadvertisement distribution systems as described above. In particular,various advertising listing systems have been developed that enableadvertisers to place price parameters for their advertisement to beassociated with concepts such as keywords, content or combinationsthereof. An illustrative example of an interface that enables a user tospecify the contents of a morphing advertisement is provided in FIG. 11.FIG. 11 depicts an interface 1100 that comprises various sections. Insection 1102, an example of the expanded (or second display format) maybe depicted to enable the user to have an idea of what the advertisementwill look like when it is displayed to an end user based upon thecontents of information provided in the expanded display format inputsection 1106 and the unexpanded display format input section 1108. Insection 1104, an example of the unexpanded format (or first displayformat) is depicted based on the information in the unexpanded displayformat input section 1108.

As shown, in the illustrative example, the input fields for the expandeddisplay format 1106 may include a first menu title input box 1110, afirst menu title URL input box 1112, a second menu title input box 1114,and a second menu title input box 1116. As indicated in the example ofFIG. 11, the input in the menu title boxes may be the heading titlesdisplayed in the advertisement as shown, for example, at 230 and 240. Asdiscussed above, although a tabbed menu mechanism is currentlyillustrated, other methods of displaying menu options are within thescope of one of ordinary skill in the art, including drop down menus,etc. Associated with each of the menu titles may be a URL to which theuser will be transferred to receive additional content for theadvertisements, such as described above with reference to FIG. 7 andFIG. 8. As shown in these examples, the input may comprise a URL thatcomprises various inputs to specify specific contents of the page, suchas the pictures in FIG. 7 or the items for sale depicted in FIG. 8.

In addition, section 1106 may include an image URL input box 1118 wherethe user may specify the location (or drag and drop it) of an image tobe displayed as a portion of the menu-driven graphical advertisementsuch as that depicted in FIGS. 2, 6, 7, and 8. The image may be cachedby the advertisement service for high performance, high reliability anduser anonymity. In addition, an expanded text input box 1120 may beprovided to enable the advertiser to specify a larger amount of textabout the company and/or items for sale that are being advertised thanare capable of being displayed in the smaller, unexpanded format asdepicted in FIG. 1 and explained below. Further, in this example, acontact info input box 1122 is provided to enable the user to specifycontact information such as that depicted in FIG. 2. It is also withinthe scope of the present invention for the contact information to bebased upon the account information on file for the advertiser such thatthe advertiser does not need to specify this information in thisadvertisement input interface 1100. Such information may beautomatically populated from the accounting database utilized by thesystem to keep track of amounts due to the advertising listing providerfrom various advertisers.

As shown, interface 1100 may also include various inputs in theunexpanded display input section 1108. As is known in the art, suchinformation may include a headline input field 1124, first and seconddescription input options 1126 and 1128, a display URL input 1130 and adestination URL input 1132. The display URL may be that URL that isdisplayed as a part of the advertisement, whereas the destination URLcould be a more specific page within that web site or could be anotherURL entirely depending upon the preferences of the advertiser.

The contents of interface 1100 that are specified by an advertiser maybe subject to approval by a human and/or automated computer processsponsored by the advertising listing provider. In one embodiment,advertisements may be approved only if they are related to the keywordsor content for which the advertiser has supplied a price parameterassociated with the advertisement Accordingly, if the images or menuoptions included in this advertisement take the user to pages unrelatedto the content of the advertiser, then such information may be rejectedand the advertiser may be required to update this information. Otherapprovals may also be performed, such as ensuring that the advertisementdoes not include offensive material.

In addition, whereas a specific number of inputs and types of inputshave been specified in this example, it should be appreciated that feweror additional inputs and types of inputs may be included within thescope of one of ordinary skill in the art. For example, audio files,movie Files, animations, arid other types of file inputs may bepermissible according to various iterations of the present invention. Insuch an embodiment, various input boxes may be provided in interface1100 to enable the advertiser to specify the source file or to uploadthe source file to be hosted at the advertising listing provider system.In addition, as described above, more than two different display formatsmay be possible and in such embodiment, one or more additional sectionsor additional pages may be provided to enable the advertiser to specifyinputs and contents of the various additional display formats to whichthe advertisement may morph depending upon user initiated activity.

Morphing and Menu-Driven Advertisements in Pay-For-PerformanceAdvertising

In various embodiments, the morphing advertisements may be part of apay-for-performance-based advertising system in which ranking ofadvertisements may be based on one or more price parameters and/or oneor more performance parameters (e.g., click through rate, conversionrate, performance information, page real estate, other measure ofperformance, etc.). Specific examples include, but are not limited to,bid amount for click-through, efficiency rating a combination thereof.Accordingly, in such embodiments use of any ranking system may be usedwithin the scope of the present invention.

For ranking, an effective rank of the graphic may be determined. Theeffective rank may be based on the price parameter (e.g., the cost perclick, etc.) and the performance parameter (e.g., click through rate,etc.). According to an example, the effective rank may be determined bymultiplying the cost per click and the click through rate. In oneexample, a higher graphical advertisement's CPC or CTR results in ahigher graphical advertisement position. Because this ranking systemrewards well-targeted, relevant advertisements, an advertiser cannot belocked out of the top position as an advertiser would in a rankingsystem based solely on price. If an advertisement is irrelevant,end-users are less likely to click on the advertisement thereby forcingthe advertisement to move down the page. Similarly, if an advertisementis relevant, it is likely to rise to the top without additional paymentfrom the advertiser. Additional examples of ordering advertisement usingscores where the scores may be determined using, at least one ofaccepted advertisement price information and advertisement performanceinformation are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/445,376, filed on May 23, 2003, entitled “Scoring, Modifying Scoresof, and/or Filtering Advertisements Using Advertiser Information,” whichis incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The score may bedetermined (or adjusted) using, at least, advertiser information. Inaddition, advertiser information may be used to filter outadvertisements. Additional examples of ordering advertisements in amanner that maximizes relevance and economic values are discussed inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/112,656, filed on Mar. 29, 2002,entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Ordering Advertisements Based onPerformance Information” and U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/112,654, filed on Mar. 29, 2002, entitled “Methods and Apparatus forOrdering Advertisements Based on Performance Information and PriceInformation,” which are incorporated by reference herein in theirentirety. Advertisement ordering may be based on accepted advertisementprice information and/or advertisement performance information whereprice information and/or performance information may be weighted orotherwise adjusted.

In another example, the advertiser may specify a maximum cost per clickamount as well as a daily budget. The daily budget may represent howmuch an advertiser wants to spend per month (or other time frame)divided by the number of days in that month (or other time frame). Theserver may use this data to match a daily amount to help ensure maximumadvertisement exposure evenly throughout each day (or other timeperiod). Additional examples of governing the serving (or delivery) ofadvertisements based on some cost target, such as cost budget for agiven period of time, are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/340,553, filed on Jan. 10, 2003, entitled “Governing the Serving ofAdvertisements Based on a Cost Target,” which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety. Advertisers may budget theiradvertising expenditures, while allowing an ad serving entity tomaximize its revenue subject to advertisers' budget constraint(s). Forexample, an exemplary embodiment may estimate an expected cost if an adwere subject to no budgetary constraints and govern the serving of theadvertisement based on the expected cost and the budget constraint(s).

An advertiser may specify content-based concepts (e.g., keywords,subject matter, etc.) and a price parameter (e.g., a maximum amount anadvertiser is willing to pay for each click) where the advertiser paysonly when an end-user clicks on the graphical advertisement.

Additional costs may be saved by automatically reducing the actual CPCto a lowest cost needed to maintain the graphical advertisement'sposition on the results page (e.g., content page, search results page,etc.).

Additional examples of presenting advertisements and managingadvertising costs are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/340,543, filed on Jan. 10, 2003, entitled “Automated PriceMaintenance for Use With a System in which Advertisements are Renderedwith Relative Preferences” and U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/340,542, filed Jan. 10, 2003, entitled “Automated Price Maintenancefor Use With a System in Which Advertisements are Rendered with RelativePreference Based on Performance Information and Price Information,”which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.Advertisements may be ordered based on accepted maximum ad bidinformation, or a combination of maximum ad bid information and adperformance information. For example, this information may be used todetermine a position (or some other ad preference) value. Cost may bedetermined based on the accepted maximum ad bid information and the nextlower position value. Certain days or time frames may be targeted forincreased exposure. For example, during the holiday season, anadvertiser may be willing to spend more on advertisement to increaseexposure. In addition, peak Internet usage times may also triggeradditional advertisement exposure. Additional examples of determiningand using time information (e.g., end user local time information,including local time-of-day, local day-of-week, local date, and/or localseason information, etc.) for improving usefulness and performance ofadvertisements are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/676,369, filed on Oct. 1, 2003, entitled “Determining and/or UsingEnd User Local Time Information in an Ad System,” which is incorporatedby reference herein in its entirety.

Real-Estate-Based Price Parameters With or Without Morphing

Also, advertisers may be given the opportunity to have their ad expandto exclude some or all other ads or simply to cover the other ads ininitial presentation (without morphing). Typically, advertisements in amore compact format are set off from the rest of the web page on whichthey reside (see, e.g., FIG. 1). Given the finite amount of space forsuch advertisements, advertisers may be given the opportunity to excludeother advertisements and thereby gain additional space for theirparticular advertisement by expanding to cover those advertisements.This may be an option or a standard feature in certain advertisementformats.

From the advertisement listing provider's perspective, the ability toexclude other advertisements is desirable if the expected revenue anduser experience (possibly including goodwill as a bonus) incurred bydoing so is maximal, based on statistical observation from morphrequests (i.e., clicks on expand icons appearing on advertisements incompact form) and performance (e.g., click-through information and/orconversion information).

Advertisers may be permitted to:

-   -   i) Enter a “bid to be the only advertiser” mode. As in ii.)        below, eliminates all competing advertisements.    -   ii) Enter a “bid to exclude enough other advertisers to show a        particular size advertisement.”

In each of these cases, the winning advertiser may pay the priceparameter for the top spot plus an amount to exclude otheradvertisements. By way of non-limiting example, there may be threeeligible advertisers (i.e., space for three advertisement spots) with aparticular size advertisement. The advertisement spots may be orderedbased on pure price parameter value, pay-for-placement ranking, anefficiency basis, or a fixed-price basis (such as impression or CIP orcost per thousand impressions or CPM), just to name a few methods ofinitial selection of the three ads. Using latter example of CPIrankings, the top advertisement spot costs Z, the middle costs Y, andthe bottom costs Z. The winning (top) advertiser can expand to use thespace used by the bottom advertiser by paying the cost of the top spotplus the cost of the bottom spot plus some premium (i.e., X+Z+epsilon,where epsilon is the premium). The top advertiser can use the entirespace if they are willing to pay the cost of all three spots plus some(possibly different) premium (X+Y+Z+epsilon′, where epsilon′ is thepremium for this case). This effective cost per impression or eCPI maybe factored into click cost as: cost of click=eCPI/CTR. In anotherexample, payment is based on effective revenue per impression.

Note that both schemas i) and ii) are revenue-neutral (plus the premium)for the advertising listing provider (i.e., advertisement host), andputs the cost for exclusive placement on the winning advertiser, at arate set by the market.

An additional illustrative example, the system may want to incentivizeadvertisers to utilize the morphing advertisement. Specifically, theadvertising listing provider may believe that the utilization of amorphing advertisement is more likely to generate a click through by theuser, and thus revenue to the advertisement listing provider. In suchsystems, the advertising listing provider is paid an amount based on aprice parameter specified by the advertiser when the advertisementachieves some performance parameter (e.g., an end user clicks through tothe advertiser designated sources). Accordingly, the advertising listingprovider increases its revenue based on two criteria: the amount of theprice parameter specified by an advertiser (e.g., bid amount) and theperformance of the advertisement (e.g., click-through-rate, conversionrate, etc.). Accordingly, as the performance and price parametersincrease, the advertising listing provider makes more money. Thus, thisexplains the basis for an advertising listing provider utilizing aneffective rate based on a price parameter and a performance parameter,such as an effective click through rate as the basis for rankingadvertisements and the system for giving key word, contents, and/orcombination thereof.

When a new advertisement type of system such as described above isimplemented, however, users may not be accustomed to interfacing withsuch an advertisement. Therefore, there may be some degradation in theclick through rate for a given advertiser until the users getsaccustomed to utilizing the morphing advertisements. Over time, however,the users of the system become more accustomed to using a morphingadvertisement and because of the increased value of the additionalinformation provided, the effective click through rate could go up.During the meantime, however, an advertiser's ranking may drop due tothe decreased click through rate. Therefore, to compensate for thispotential intervening drop and click through rate, the system may give acredit or bonus to advertisers who utilize a morphing advertisement.

For example, if an advertiser's specific price in a price parameter fora given concept (e.g., content, keyword or combination thereof) were 20cents per some level of performance (e.g., click through, conversion,etc.), the system may provide a 20% bonus to the advertiser forutilizing a morphing advertisement. Accordingly, the advertisement wouldbe treated as being based on a 22 cent click through bid as opposed to20 cents. Or, rather than increasing the bid amount for using morphingads, the recorded click through rate for that advertiser could beartificially modified by a certain percentage as well. Or, the clickthrough rate calculations could be increased based upon various criteriaof use of the morphing advertisement rather than just a click throughrate. In this example, the advertiser may not be charged for a clickthrough even though the click through rate would be increased forpurposes of ranking. For example, if a particular advertisement had aclick through rate of 100 per 1000 impressions, but the systemdetermined that for every 1000 impressions, 200 users expanded theadvertisement from a first display format to a second display format,the system could adjust the click through rate from 100 per thousand to300 per thousand or any level of adjustment in between based onassessment or a scheme employed by the system. This increase could befor purposes of ranking but not compensation to the advertising listingprovider, or for both or a two for one increase may be in order suchthat the click through rate would be adjusted to 200 per thousand. Inthis example, the advertiser could be charged for the additional clickthroughs based on the user's expansion, but preferably the adjustmentwould be only for purposes of ranking and not for purposes of accountingthe amount owed by the advertiser to the advertiser listing system. Butthe adjustment could be made for both.

The bonus or credit system may be implemented only for a pre-determinedperiod of time until the morphing advertisement system becomes acceptedby end users or until a predetermined number of advertisers transitiontheir advertisements in the system from a single display format to amorphing advertisement format. Other methodologies for enticingadvertisers to employ morphing advertisements something else will heused within the scope of the present invention.

As discussed briefly above, the system may desire to track theutilization of the morphing advertisement for purposes of accounting orfeedback to the advertisers. Accordingly, the code delivered with theadvertisement may include code to track actions by a user, including oneor more of the following: expansion of an ad from a first display formatto a second display format (or other formats if available), selection ofmenu options, selection of the home icon, time spent viewing eachiteration of the advertisement (i.e., time spent viewing the firstdisplay format and time spent viewing the second display format),mouse-over events, shrinking the advertisement, etc. This informationmay then be transmitted hack to the content advertisement system toprovide feedback, research information, and for billing purposes.

According to another variation on use of the system, an advertiser maybe charged a “click through” based on tracking of the user activity. Asdiscussed above, the click through could be charged even if the userdoes not actually click through to the advertiser's web site. Forexample, if an advertiser does not have a web site, the advertiser couldstill participate in the system by agreeing that expansion of theadvertisement from a first display format to a second display formatwould be deemed a billable event, that a predetermined amount of timeviewing the second display format comprised a billable event, thatselection of any of the menu options comprised a click through, or anyother basis for tracking the use of the morphing advertisement by auser. In such a way, an advertiser that does not have a web site couldstill participate in a pay for performance advertisement system byfilling out information such as that depicted in FIG. 11 and having arelatively useful graphical interface by which potential customers canlearn more about the advertiser and/or its products. Also, even if thecompany that is advertising does have its own website, the advertisinglisting system may decide to charge a billable event if an end userperforms a certain predetermined number of activities with regard to themorphing ad, views the second display format for a predetermined periodof time, selects one or more of the menu options, or any other basis forcharging for a click through. It should be understood that charging isoptional by the system but in various iterations of this system,charging based on activities other than a click through could beexecuted by the system.

In another example, one or more morphing advertisements may beassociated with an ad group involving a group of advertisements. Forexample, the group of advertisements may include non-graphical,text-only or other advertisements associated with the same (or related)advertiser that created the morphing advertisement. Other methods forgrouping advertisements may be applied. This ad group may be triggeredusing common criteria (e.g., the same (or related) keywords, subjectmatter or concepts, etc.). An advertiser may use a single interface tomanage various advertisements (e.g., text-only advertisements, graphicaladvertisements, other rich media advertisements including audio and/orvisual information, and other advertisements). Additional examples ofmanaging online advertising by associating two or more keywords with anadvertisement and associating a bid, collectively, with the two or morekeywords are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/340,193,filed on Jan. 10, 2003, entitled “Pricing Across Keywords Associatedwith One or More Advertisements,” which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

While the foregoing description includes details and specificities, itshould be understood that such details arid specificities have beenincluded for the purposes of explanation only, and are not to beinterpreted as limitations of the present invention. Many modificationsto the embodiments described above can be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention, as it is intended to beencompassed by the following claims and their legal equivalents.

1. A computer-implemented method for providing advertisements oncomputing devices, the method comprising: determining, at a server, thata first creative associated with an advertiser has been displayed by abrowser of a computing device along with content from a first website;subsequently determining that the browser has requested a web page froma second different website; identifying a second creative associatedwith the advertiser, the second creative being related to the firstcreative; and causing, by the server, the second creative associatedwith the advertiser to be served for display by the browser on thecomputing device within content retrieved from the second differentwebsite.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first creative comprisesa menu-driven advertisement.
 3. The method of claim 2, whereinsubsequently determining that the browser has requested a web page fromthe second different website comprises determining that a menu option ofthe menu-driven advertisement has been selected.
 4. The method of claim3, wherein the menu option selection is a user click.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the second creative associated with the advertisercomprises a menu-driven advertisement.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinthe first creative comprises dynamic content.
 7. The method of claim 5,wherein the content from the second different website comprises one ormore content portions distinct from the menu-driven advertisement. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein content from the web page is displayed inone of the one or more content portions.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the first creative comprises a rich media advertisement.
 10. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the menu-driven advertisement comprises acompact display format, an expanded display format, and a menu option totransition between the compact display format and the expanded displayformat.
 11. A system comprising: one or more servers to performoperations comprising: determining, at a server, that a first creativeassociated with an advertiser has been displayed by a browser of acomputing device along with content from a first website; subsequentlydetermining that the browser has requested a web page from a seconddifferent website; identifying a second creative associated with theadvertiser, the second creative being related to the first creative; andcausing, by the server, the second creative associated with theadvertiser to be served for display by the browser on the computingdevice within content retrieved from the second different website. 12.The system of claim 11, wherein the first creative comprises amenu-driven advertisement.
 13. The system of claim 12, whereinsubsequently determining that the browser has requested a web page fromthe second different website comprises determining that a menu option ofthe menu-driven advertisement has been selected.
 14. The system of claim13, wherein the menu option selection is a user click.
 15. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the second creative associated with the advertisercomprises a menu-driven advertisement.
 16. The system of claim 11,wherein the first creative comprises dynamic content.
 17. The system ofclaim 15, wherein the content from the second different websitecomprises one or more content portions distinct from the menu-drivenadvertisement.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein content from the webpage is displayed in one of the one or more content portions.
 19. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the first creative comprises a rich mediaadvertisement.
 20. A computer-readable storage device having storedthereon instructions, which, when executed by a computer, cause thecomputer to perform operations comprising: determining that a firstcreative associated with an advertiser has been displayed by a browserof a computing device along with content from a first website;subsequently determining that the browser has requested a web page froma second different website; identifying a second creative associatedwith the advertiser, the second creative being related to the firstcreative; and causing the second creative associated with the advertiserto be served for display by the browser on the computing device withincontent retrieved from the second different website.
 21. The system ofclaim 12, wherein the menu-driven advertisement comprises a compactdisplay format, an expanded display format, and a menu option totransition between the compact display format and the expanded displayformat.